Muzak no longer FTA?

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fedupwithcablevision590

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
May 26, 2007
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Someone told me that muzak has now "locked" several channels on Echostar 119, meaning they are no longer FTA, this includes environmental. Figures, I finally get the reciever and they do this. Good thing I haven't opened the box yet.
 
Lets just hope I can recoup my losses on eBay or somewhere. I'll lose $$ if I return it. $85 was alot of $$ for me to begin with.:mad:
 
well I scanned 119 for ALL...oh by the way, don't do it. Its a pain in the ass to delete some 400+ channels

looks like 920-935 are scrambled but the rest are free....but here is what is weird. If you select the channel, you hear the audio for like a second
 
Muzak should just allow FMONE and ENVOE to be available to dish subs. Right now dish subs above a certain package (think it's 200 or higher) get all the muzak channels but FMONE and ENVOE. Why not? Then I'd switch from cable to dish and it'd be problem solved.
2 unique formats found nowhere else and people can't listen to it. That just aint fair! Considering muzak is loosing money, it'd be in their best interest to gear to both business and residential.
 
Last I heard there was some idiot going around selling FTA boxes to busineese to pick up the MUZAK stations in the clear on 119.

Nothing illegal about it either!

The thought has always crossed my mind but I definitely wouldn't leave my card as the day they aren't FTA what do you do! DOH!

Not worth the hassle!
 
When I blind-scan the transponders that hold the Muzak channels with my Fortec Ultra it usually trips over Environmental and FMONE and I have to enter the parameters manually into my receiver to get them. I'm confident that is what you're running into now.

It actually is illegal to just set up an FTA box to pipe Muzak into a commercial establishment without a paying Muzak subscription.
Not only is the establishment stealing service from Muzak they are also not paying public listening royalties to the music rightsholders.

Tens of thousands of receivers need to be swapped out? I doubt it. Something else is going on. Muzak doesn't make that much money on these general-purpose channels. It makes money on the custom channels that are designed for the subscribing establishment--there are several hundreds of those channels and they're not on 119 (most of them are not even on satellite).

Perhaps the reason FMONE and ENVOE are not available is because:
FMONE has higher royalty rates because it's a contemporary hits channel, sort of an unhosted FM station with no interruptions.
ENVOE has a good percentage of music that is produced by and for Muzak.
I can't explain why all the stereo channels are available, though.

DMX Music is trying to get permission to acquire Muzak so the money hemmorhage is being stemmed somewhat.
Perhaps this is a good idea of the reason why they lost so much money for the past 20 years.

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Last I heard there was some idiot going around selling FTA boxes to busineese to pick up the MUZAK stations in the clear on 119.

Nothing illegal about it either!
We had to buy a license for our "music on hold" feature of our business phone system. I believe any use of MUZAK within a commercial environment requires a license and royalty payment. Therefore, it may not be illegal to sell the equipment - but it would be illegal for a business to use it.
Bob
 
We had to buy a license for our "music on hold" feature of our business phone system. I believe any use of MUZAK within a commercial environment requires a license and royalty payment. Therefore, it may not be illegal to sell the equipment - but it would be illegal for a business to use it.
Bob

Not just Muzak, but any use of any copyrighted music in a commercial or public environment requires license and royalties.

If you can get uncopyrighted or expired copyrighted music you can use it for your music-on-hold with a tiny MP3 player hooked to the audio-IN jack. That's a good alternative solution for music-on-hold.

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You'd be surprised how many people really don't know this.

I know this one business that has the owners second Sirius radio unit playing during the day...he pulls it during the weekend and puts it in his boat. He probably thinks it's perfectly legal as he pays the bill on it each month.
 
An suggestion that is often offered to commercial establishments is to become an ASCAP or BMI member. This is in the case where the establishment is using a CD jukebox (such as in a bar, restaurant, etc.). I have heard of cases where the playing of CD albums, which are sold for private home use only, in these jukeboxes has resulted in lawsuits.
 
If you can get uncopyrighted or expired copyrighted music you can use it for your music-on-hold with a tiny MP3 player hooked to the audio-IN jack. That's a good alternative solution for music-on-hold.

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This is true, but we had to pay a one time license for the artist that performed the expired copyrighted music!
Bob
 
This is true, but we had to pay a one time license for the artist that performed the expired copyrighted music!
Bob

Oh, the Beethoven estate is still taking payments?
:eek:
Sorry, couldn't resist!
:)

The first time I saw an iPod Nano plugged into a charging dock and then plugged into the music jack of a small office PBX I nearly lost my mind at the elegant simplicity.
They used to go through CD players about once a year. The motors kept burning out.
Newer PBXs uses flash memory but the iPod Nano solution just floored me.


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first time I saw an iPod Nano plugged into a charging dock and then plugged into the music jack of a small office PBX I nearly lost my mind at the elegant simplicity.
.

We now use an MP3 player - used to go through CD players as well.
Bob
 
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